After a long career at Barron's, I joined Forbes as San Francisco bureau chief in December 2010. I've been writing about technology and investing for more than 25 years. With the Tech Trade, I've picked up where I left off when I was writing the Tech Trader Daily blog at Barrons.com. When I'm not working, you can find me riding my road bike around the Bay Area hills, managing my fantasy baseball team, rooting for my beloved Phillies and Eagles and hanging out in the Valley with my family. You can follow me on Facebook, on Twitter (@savitz), and on Google+.

Cree: Deutsche Bank Cuts Rating To Hold On Valuation Basis

Deutsche Bank analyst Vishal Shah this morning cut his rating on LED lighting play Cree to Hold from Buy, while maintaining a price target of $33. On Wednesday, Cree shares closed at $33.56.

“While we continue to see positive momentum in the LED lighting market, we believe shares are already discounting strong growth and margin improvement given the 50% [year-to-date] increase vs 11% increase for [the S&P 500],” he writes in a research note. “With shares trading near high end of historical valuation range/premium to peers we believe risk-reward is now balanced especially considering limited near term positive demand catalysts over a seasonally weak [March quarter] timeframe.”

Shah adds that checks with Cree’s distributors find the company sees positive momentum from new products. But he adds that he sees “limited near term upside due to emerging funding challenges/hurricane related slowdown in [the December quarter] and seasonality in [the March quarter]. Recent checks indicate that the uptake of new products is unlikely to accelerate in the latter part of FY13 and lighting product revenues are likely tracking flat sequentially in the [December quaqter] versus guidance of solid growth in this segment.”

He adds that checks also indicate that Cree has started a new sales promotion for distributors and is offering volume related price discounts between 5-20%.

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